I never thought I’d be able to get up at 5am and start hiking, because I was so exhausted from yesterday, but the realization that “I can get rid of the bear can at Echo Lake!” was a HUGE motivator!  The sky was full of little puffy clouds, moving fast.  “I wonder what kind of weather we’re in for today?”  I wondered.  It wasn’t a cold morning–only 50 degrees, which is “warm” for this altitude!

I love walking the PCT around Tuolemne Meadows, because my family used to camp, fish and walk here for a week every August. As we followed the trail through the meadows, across some more creeks, and over the vast sheets of glistening granite, I enjoyed the views of what I call “the Tuolemne Meadows icons” like Lembert Dome, Cathedral Peak, etc.  The farther we got from Tioga Pass, though, the worse the mosquitoes got, till we had to put on our headnets just to hike in peace.

We reached the bridge over the Tuolemne River, where the placid waters start their whitewater plunge steeply down into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolemne.  Several hikers were lounging at the bridge, and as we began the descent into the Canyon, we met quite a few more.  They were all so clean!  I’m afraid at this point on the PCT, our own clothes look pretty grungy, even though we wash them every time we’re at a resupply.  All the hikers were “heading home” from overnight camping at Glen Aulin.

The PCT turned off and began to climb up along Cold Canyon creek.  The trail was actually DRY!  Wowee!  No mud!  We were making good time, but I was dreading the crossing of Return Creek, a notoriously “dangerous” ford up ahead.  Along the way, we caught up with a sweet old guy out backpacking with a TON of photographic equipment.  He was very cheerful about the weight he was carrying.  I was impressed!  We stopped for lunch just before Return Creek.  A little bit more hiking, and we could hear the roar of Return Creek just ahead.  I was praying silently, “Please, Lord, help me get across OK”.  Well, not to worry!  One look at it, and I said, “Bear Creek was a lot worse! I  can cross this, no problem!”  So I crossed Return all by myself, and cheered when I made i to the other side!

 A long uphill climb through slowly increasing patchy snow and several more creek crossings brought us to pretty Miller Lake with a sandy beach. Nice! A bit more up, and we were at the spectacular dropoff of Matterhorn Canyon. To me the Canyon looks like scaled-down Yosemite Valley.  Beautiful!

A lot of switchbacks (and snow travel too) and we were at the canyon bottom. It’s a nice long walk along the valley floor, with plenty of time to savor the spectacular views, and plenty of tributary creek crossings. Oh, for just one day of dry shoes, socks and pants!

After eating supper with a lovely view of Matterhorn Creek and the canyon, we tackled the long climb up to Benson Pass.  The PCT follows a very pretty, cascading creek lined with green grass and wildflowers.   The trail tread crisscrosses the creek several times, and we ended up camping just before the last ford of the creek, where the PCT turns for its final climb up to Benson Pass.  There were plenty of mosquitoes around, but we were too tired to do anything but toss down a groundsheet, our sleeping pads and sleeping bags and then collapse.   I wore my hat and mosquito headnet to bed, hoping that would more or less protect me from those “mossies!”   But what a relief to know that Return Creek is behind us!  I know there are more big creek crossings ahead, but Return is the one I dreaded the most.

Walk to Rauros: Bare winter trees on both sides of river

Bill and I both totally zonked last night and slept like logs. “Amazing!” Bill said. “I didn’t even hear the river roaring!” Our long climb up to Selden Pass was enlivened by what I decided to call a “sage hen convention.” We saw several of them on the trail, and heard them drumming in the woods. Bushes in full bloom were hanging over the trail, and smelled very sweet.  Everything was very wet and muddy, though.

We reached lovely Sally Keyes Lakes, where big fat trout swim within easy reach, and several people were camped.  We were amazed at the trout.  “You could catch them with a net!” I said.  “No need for a pole, hook ‘n bait!” 

Heart Lake (higher up) was frozen over, and we fought our way through snow again, with the trail appearing and disappearing, till we finally reached the top at noon. Getting down was tough— lots of snow and hard to find the way, since the trail stays fairly high up for some time, and there was no reliable trail of footprints.   And I had the added dread of knowing that Bear Creek, one of the most horrendous fords of the High Sierra, was just ahead. But we met a hiker who told us the ranger had put up a rope to help hikers get across.   That gave me a bit of hope, and sure enough, when we reached rushing Bear Creek,  just downstream from the trail crossing, there it was–a nice rope tightly strung across the wide, roaring water, for hikers to hold on to.

Note from Alexa: The great irony of this is that, as you see below, the Walk Middle-earth mileage for this day was using ropes to get across a scary creek crossing in Lórien! Creepy!

At first Bill said he would just cross with his trek poles, but then he decided to use the rope.  So he went first and I watched.  The water was just below waist deep on him, and obviously, the worst part was on the far side. With my trek poles lashed to the top of my pack, and everything else secured for a nasty crossing, I ventured in.  The water was moving fast, and was waist deep on me.  Using the rope was quite different from using trek poles. With trek poles you are always leaning INTO the current.  With a rope, you need to keep the rope taut so that it can steady you, and that means you are sort of pulling BACK from the current instead of stepping forward and leaning into it.  After all my trek pole crossing practice, this felt sort of counterintuitive, but I managed OK till I got to the far side where I’d noticed even Bill was having difficulty.  It was baaaaaaad!  I yelled for some help, Bill came back into the river to steady me  a bit and I made it. I LOVE ropes!   And I sure am glad Bill is here, too!

 Then we tried to hike on as fast as we could, to be able to reach Vermilion Valley Resort tomorrow. From Bear Creek on, the mosquitoes were just awful–we had to eat our supper under headnets, wearing raingear– and even though we made it almost to the top of Bear Ridge before camping, we still had to rig the net tent. I am feeling better— maybe the GSE is working!  I was actually hungry at suppertime, and could eat with no problems!   VVR, here we come!

Walk to Lórien: Crossing the Silverlode on ropes